Mage Knight Board Game

Beschrijving van de Producent:

Mage Knight Board Game

The Mage Knight board game puts you in control of one of four powerful Mage Knights as you explore (and conquer) a corner of the Mage Knight universe under the control of the Atlantean Empire. Build your army, fill your deck with powerful spells and actions, explore caves and dungeons, and eventually conquer powerful cities controlled by this once-great faction! In competitive scenarios, opposing players may be powerful allies, but only one will be able to claim the land as their own. In cooperative scenarios, the players win or lose as a group. Solo rules are also included.

Mage Knight Board Game

Combining elements of RPGs, deckbuilding, and traditional board games the Mage Knight board game captures the rich history of the Mage Knight universe in a self-contained gaming experience..

Epic Gameplay:

The game is played in turns over a number of rounds determined by the chosen scenario. Each round is represented by a day/night cycle. The day and night cycle not only keeps track of the rounds but has a profound effect on the way the game is played. The day/night cycle not only determines how difficult terrain is to traverse but also determines how effective a spell is once cast and also which mana will be available to the Mage Knights.

Mage Knight Board Game

Each Mage Knight begins the game with a deck of 15 cards that represent everything that that player can do. These cards dictate things such as your movement, attack power, ability to influence units to join your cause and ability to absorb damage in combat. Each card has a primary effect as well as a second, more powerful, effect that can be triggered if the player pays mana while playing the card. In addition players are allowed to play cards sideways for a small amount of attack, block, movement or influence. The abillity to play any card sideways means that players are never stuck with useless cards in hand.

Mage Knight Board Game

Mage Knights will gain fame as they play and will gain levels as a result. Fame can be gained in numerous ways including but not limited to defeating monsters, exploring dungeons and ancient ruins and taking control of keeps, mage towers and cities. As the Mage Knights gain fame and level up players will add cards of increasing power to their decks. Players will not only have access to cards that are direct upgrades to their starting cards but will also be able to add powerful Spell and rare Artifact cards to their decks.

Mage Knight Board Game

Leveling up also gains the Mage Knights new unique skills, stronger armor and the ability to recruit more units. Additionally, leveling up gives the player a larger hand size. The fame and leveling system adds a satisfying sense of progression to the game as the Mage Knights are constantly growing in power.

Mage Knight Board Game

A single game of Mage Knight will see players explore the countryside fighting monsters, visiting villages, recruiting units, assaulting keeps and mage towers, visiting and potentially burning monasteries to the ground, visiting dungeons full of dangers, conquering cities and much more in their quest to complete the chosen scenario. Most of these options will be available to the players immediately from the beginning of the game. It is up to the player to figure out how best to use the cards in their hand and deck to tackle all of these obstacles and options presented to them. The plethora of options and numerous ways that each card can be used gives each turn of Mage Knight a puzzle like quality as the player must determine how best to use the resources at their disposal.

Mage Knight Board Game

Players are given freedom to choose how to approach each situation presented in the game. Many of the decisions a player makes directly effect their Mage Knight’s reputation. Having a positive reputation will make some things easier such as recruiting units and healing wounds at a village. Having a negative reputation makes these things more difficult. Players gain reputation by defeating rampaging enemies found scattered on the various map tiles in the game.

Mage Knight Board Game

Many actions throughout the game cause a Mage Knight to loose reputation such as assaulting keeps, mage towers and cities, pillaging villages to increase hand size or even burning a monastery to the ground to take control of an ancient artifact. The players will need to decide if the power gained is worth the negative reputation.

Mage Knight Board Game

A note on complexity: Mage Knight has a very very steep learning curve. The game’s walk-through and instruction manuals are well written but expect to play the game at least three or four times before you gain a full grasp of the mechanics and options available. The game is very complex. I would not try to introduce Mage Knight to someone who is brand new to board gaming as it truly does take a commitment to learn.

A note on solo play: Mage Knight is an outstanding solo experience. I have more solo plays of Mage Knight than I have total plays of many other (good) games in my collection. If you enjoy board gaming but don’t play as often as you like because you have trouble pulling a group together I strongly recommend Mage Knight due to its outstanding solo play.